In the Eye of the Beholder

 

   While I was cleaning out a cupboard yesterday evening, I ran across what I consider to be a very valuable possession.  Now to others visiting my home, they would not consider these items valuable, but they mean a lot to me.  What are these items?  They are old, brown custard cups made out of ceramic.  Their value lies not in their appearance, but in what they symbolize to me.
     When I had polio, my grandmother used to make me homemade custard since I had difficulty in swallowing.  I can honestly say it was the best custard anyone ever made! After I fully recovered from polio, I had many bouts with bronchitis, so I had many more opportunities to taste my grandmother's homemade custard.  I do believe she thought this would cure anything.
     When my grandmother died, the family asked me what I would like to have from her home.  I asked for those old, brown custard cups because they held more than custard as far as I was concerned.  They represented the memories of love and effort spent on my behalf.  I know everyone in the family thought I was crazy, but I know they just didn't understand how valuable these items were to me.
     In the same way, we are of great value and importance to our heavenly Father as well.  Read Romans 5:7-8:  "For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."
     God didn't ask us to clean up our lives before He would reach out to us.  No, instead, He sent His beloved Son to die for us while we were still sinners in rebellion.  He looked beyond the crusty, dirty exterior of our lives and saw in us a soul worth saving.  This is the greatest kind of love.  Before we loved Him, He loved us.  When we stop and think about that, we can only marvel.
     There have been many times when most of us have felt less than adequate for a task or less than attractive by the world's standards.  However, God saw beauty and value in our lives.  He made us by His hands and then, even when we rebelled against Him, He loved us.
     None of us are judged by the world's standards in the end.  Satan would like us to think we are; but Jesus broke through that curtain of deceit and ripped it from top to bottom opening the throne room of God Himself for us.  He did it because He loved us.
     So today, if we are feeling down or like a failure, we need to remember this scripture and embrace it.  Let us take this Word of the Lord to our hearts and let it heal our feelings of inadequacy.  We are complete and whole by the power and love that raised Jesus from the dead.  May that love penetrate every area of our lives so we may fully worship the Lord who did this for us!  Selah!